A study of the cognitive component of patriotic consciousness among university students

Relevance. Currently, society clearly demands the development of patriotic consciousness in the younger generation. Students, as the most mobile and creative part of society, are the primary transmitters of value systems for the future. This article examines students' perceptions of patriotism and methods for effectively fostering patriotic consciousness and its structural components in today's youth.

Purpose. To study the cognitive component in the structure of patriotic consciousness among modern students, as reflected in their perceptions, and to propose theoretical and methodological foundations for its development.

Hypothesis. Developing patriotic consciousness among students in a university's digital educational environment will be effective if: the structural components of patriotic consciousness and their measurable indicators are defined; and direct and indirect methods of socio-psychological influence on these structural components and patriotic consciousness as a whole, from the perspective of students, are identified.

Methods and materials. The study utilized a questionnaire designed by the author, containing cognitive, affective, and behavioral components corresponding to the structural components of representations. The applied mathematical-statistical method of prototype analysis by P. Vergès was employed, which allows for identifying the core and periphery of collective representations based on the frequency and rank (order) of association mentions. A total of 430 students from the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities at Samara National Research University named after S.P. Korolev participated in the study.

Results. The core of the associative field of students' ideas about patriotism consists of lexemes associated with an emotional relationship to the Motherland: "love," "pride," "loyalty." These units are character-ized by the highest frequency and the lowest average rank, indicating their stability and primacy in students' consciousness. The transition zone is formed by associations such as "protection," "respect," "loyalty," and "culture," which are actualized at a higher rank. The contrast zone includes singular, but first-in-order associations ("soldier," "affection," "honesty," "propaganda"), reflecting alternative individual interpretations. Students believe that methods that function as soft power will be effective. It is important for young people to channel patriotic meanings through aesthetics and creativity, particularly through digital products, as this aligns with their language of self-presentation in social environments.

Conclusions. The cognitive component of students' patriotic consciousness contains emotionally charged ideas, based on their relationship to the Motherland, based on love, pride, and loyalty. The defensive and civic meanings of these ideas belong to the transitional zone, indicating their secondary, derivative nature relative to basic emotions. The presence of a variety of isolated associations in the contrast zone and periphery indicates the incompleteness of the process of semantic consolidation of the concept of "patriotism" among students. This is precisely the zone that requires psychological and pedagogical intervention. Patriotism has been found to have a high normative legitimacy in the minds of students. Modern youth prefer to use soft-pedaling methods to effectively develop patriotic consciousness among student youth.

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